Angered Sawyer Leaves Area Of Miami In Dark

MIAMI — A man, angered over his rejection by a woman in a singles bar, felled several utility poles with a chainsaw and plunged about 2,000 homes into darkness, police said Wednesday.

Police say Jay Halaise, 27, of Miami, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and criminal mischief in the Tuesday night incident that left the city`s Coconut Grove area in the dark early Wednesday.

``He cut two or three telephone or electric poles,`` said Ron Sable, a Miami police spokesman.

At least one of the poles fell to the ground, downing a tangle of wires. Officer Angel Roman said a man approached the suspect as he cut a pole and asked what he was doing.

``The defendant raised the chainsaw at the victim and started to chase him,`` Roman said. ``The victim ran and hid. Then he called police.``

Kathleen Zargo, a patron of Big Daddy`s bar, said the man approached her Tuesday night and she rebuffed him. Zargo said the man then told her, ``I`m going to get a chain saw and cut down all the trees.`` He attacked utility poles instead of trees, however.

Florida Power and Light Co. spokesman Bob Lubert said the utility received a call from police after midnight about a pole being down. Lubert said the outage affected about 2,200 customers initially.

He said power to most of them was restored in less than an hour, but about 150 customers in a four-block area were still without electricity around 2 a.m. Utility workers were at the scene repairing the damage.